BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Despite a miraculous comeback to force a second game, the Birmingham-Southern baseball team ended its postseason journey in the Birmingham Regional Final against La Verne. 

Game One
The Panthers got off to a great start and opened the scoring in the top of the first on a sac fly from Noah Best. In the following inning, Andrew Dutton hit a two-run RBI single to give BSC an early 3-0 lead. BSC stayed hot and in the next inning, Luke DePiero hit a sac fly before a Wes Diamantis three-run opposite field homer to give the Panthers a commanding 7-0 lead after three. However, La Verne did not go away as they added five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to cut the deficit to two. The Leopards then added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to take an 8-7 lead after trailing early. La Verne did not stop there as they added two more in the following inning to score a total of ten unanswered runs and took a 10-7 lead. In the top of the ninth, BSC battled back. A Jackson Webster home run to left field cut the Leopard lead to one. With two outs, Jakob Zito entered the game to pinch hit and hit a clutch homer to tie the game. The Panthers held off La Verne in the bottom of the inning, so the game would go to extras. In the top of the tenth, Ian Hancock blasted a homer to left field to give BSC a 12-10 lead. The Panthers held off the Leopards in the bottom of the tenth on a close play at the plate to win the game 12-11 and force a second game in the regional final. 


Game Two
The first inning of the game was scoreless but in the top of the second inning, La Verne opened the flood gates with a huge inning. They got on the board with an RBI single and then hit a double to give themselves a quick 4-0 lead. The Leopards did not stop there as they then scored on another double and an error to take a 6-0 lead. A ground-rule double and a single then gave La Verne a 9-0 lead after only two innings of play. The Panthers could not quite pick up from where they left off last game and failed to respond through three innings. In the top of the fourth, La Verne added on three more runs this time from an RBI single and a two-run homer to left field to extend their commanding lead to 12-0. In the bottom of the fourth, Wes Diamantis got BSC on the board with an RBI single. Later in the inning, Cam McNearney hit a bases-clearing double to make the score 12-4. In the top of the following inning, La Verne hit their second homer of the game to stretch their lead to 14-4. BSC did not answer in the bottom of the fifth but in the sixth inning, Cam McNearney stayed hot with an RBI single to add to BSC's run total. Jackson Webster homered in the next inning to make the score 14-6, however, in the top of the eighth, the Leopards added another run on a single to give themselves a 15-6 lead. Cam McNearney once again got an RBI in the bottom of the eighth inning to close the gap. In the bottom of the ninth, Jackson Webster hit an RBI single, and Jack Fleming hit a long two-run homer with no outs to cut the deficit to five. However, the Panthers couldn't quite come back and fell to La Verne 15-10 in the Birmingham Regional Final. 

Click here for BSC's post game interview with Coach Weisberg, Noah Best, and Ian Hancock

Records
#1 Birmingham-Southern 39-11, #2 La Verne 31-16